Investor Matt Schumer sparked a firestorm on social media this week with an essay warning of the disruptive potential of AI. “It wasn’t meant to scare people,” he said after more than 80 million views.
“Let me be clear on this: this article was not intended to scare people in this way,” Schumer said Friday on CNBC’s “Power Lunch.” “If I had known how widespread this was going to be, I would have thought about certain parts and definitely rewritten some parts.”
The essay “Something Big is Happening” details Schumer’s recent experiences with artificial intelligence. In it, he argues that the capabilities of AI are widely underestimated by the public. He compared the current state of AI to the early whispers of the COVID-19 pandemic in February 2020, just before the number of cases spiked in the United States.
OpenAI burst into the mainstream in 2022 with the launch of its AI chatbot ChatGPT, starting a high-stakes race for supremacy with rivals like Google and Anthropic. Investors are pouring billions into the technology, with Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon expected to spend nearly $700 billion in capital spending this year alone.
He wrote that he was “shocked” to discover that AI could perform all the actual technical tasks of his job, and Schumer said he expects professionals in fields such as law, finance, medicine, and accounting, among others, to begin sharing similar experiences.
Schumer published the essay on Tuesday. Since then, the essay has garnered more than 100,000 likes and nearly 6,000 comments, according to X. This essay provoked various praise and criticism from readers. In retrospect, Schumer said he wished some pieces had been put together differently.
Still, Schumer reiterated his belief that AI could be disruptive to many knowledge workers. He said it’s “obvious” that AI will be able to do anything computers can do, but said that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be adopted or pervasive in society right away.
Schumer said the “core message” he is trying to get across is that people in the workforce should start using and experimenting with AI tools to understand what’s coming.
“Everyone likes to think they’re special,” Schumer said. “For a while, I thought I was special.”
